LXXI

Wordsworth wrote an endless poem in blank verse on” the growth of a poet’s mind.” I shall attempt a more modest feat for a more distracted age: a blog, “Things which a Lifetime of Trying to Be a Poet has Taught Me.”

Why did I go from seminary studying theology to graduate study in English literature? It is a question I am often asked. There are many good answers. One is that Theology is the queen of the sciences, and Philology, even more than Philosophy, is her chief handmaiden. Another is the sheer wonder of what Christians believe. Take the reality of Christ’s Person, for example. How would a theologian limited to mere prose try to capture it? I have seen the results, abstract and dry, too often. The problem is not just that they are incomprehensible; they manage to be incomprehensible without conveying any compensating sense of the beauty and mystery surrounding this most glorious of truths. Here’s my way of doing it (published in Christianity Today, 17 October 1979).